Beginning the new financial year on a positive note, Coal India has reported 5.73 per cent jump in production for April against the same month previous year.
The production stood at 35.75 million tonnes against 33.81 mt and the offtake at 39.89 mt (37.76 mt).
“This was despite the fact that several state power utilities did not accept their committed quantity of coal as they were flush with coal at their plants. They have specifically requested CIL not to effect further supplies as their plants were replete with stocks,” the Coal Ministry said in a statement.
Interestingly, coal offtake was 4.14 mt more than the actual production, which means the entire additional supply came from the liquidation of the ground stock.
CIL began 2013-14 with a pithead stock of 57.86 mt which stood at 53.72 mt at the close of the month.
Coal supply to power utilities stood at 29.55 mt (26.82 mt), a growth of 10.2 per cent.
Coal India loaded an average of 201 rakes per day during the month against 181.5 rakes a day in April last year, up 10.7 per cent.